Rideau Centre mall owner won't say if it uses facial recognition

Cadillac Fairview, the real estate company that owns the Rideau Centre, is refusing to say whether it uses facial recognition software to track the age and gender of visitors at the Ottawa mall.

The activitycame to light after a shopperat theChinook Centre in Calgary, another Cadillac Fairviewproperty,spotted a browser windowseemingly accidentallyleft open on one of the mall's directories, exposing facial-recognition softwarerunning in the background of the digital map.

They took a photo and posted it to the social networking site Reddit on Tuesday.

• At least two malls are using facial recognition technology to track shoppers' ages and genders without telling

CadillacFairviewowns 23 shopping centres across Canada.

In astatement emailed to CBCOttawa, the company's communications director, Janine Ramparas, saidCadillac Fairviewis"not sharing details of the program, including locations, as we view this as proprietary.

"But to clarify, this software was being tested.We have not rolled it out."

The technology tries topredict approximateage and gender. Ramparassaidno videos or photos arerecorded or stored, and that the data is being used "to further understand the usage of our directories."

"We don't require consent, because we're not capturing or retaining images," a Cadillac Fairview spokesperson told CBC News.

'Treating people like guinea pigs'

John Lawford, executive director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, saidit shouldn'tmatter if the technology is in the testing stageif consumers aren't informed they're being recorded,they're being spied upon.

"There is privacy legislation thatrequires you to ask first and describe what information you're collecting, and if that's not being done,then I think that's illegal," he said.

"Using a public populationto test is like treating people like guinea pigs, and that's not fair."

He saidmanagement should post how and why they're collecting the datato give people a chance to walk away from the electronic mall directories.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada said it'salsoconcerned with how Cadillac Fairviewis usingfacial recognition.

In an email, a spokesperson said it has the "potential to be the most highly invasiveof the current popular biometric identifying technologies."

Staff with the commissioner's officeplanto follow up on the company's assertion that it's not collecting any personal information, the statement said.

The office also intends to reach out to its provincial counterparts.

Ottawa'sBayshore Shopping Centre considered usingfacial recognition software three years ago after renovations, but decided against it. But general manager Denis Pelletier saidthe malldoes have sensors on its doors to track how many peoplevisit.